Summary
The US tourism industry faces a major decline as harsh immigration policies deter visitors.
High-profile detentions of Western travelers have led to a forecasted 9% decrease in visits, reversing a previously expected 5% rise, and risking a $64 billion loss.
Germany and the UK updated travel advisories following detentions of citizens without clear visa violations.
Canadian tourism also dropped significantly amid tariff threats. Denmark and Finland warned transgender travelers about entry issues.
Experts cite anti-immigrant rhetoric and unpredictable enforcement as key deterrents.
Just imagine a legal tourist in the US gets their wallet stolen.
Once, when people in the US had rights, he would contact the police, who would help him getting in contact with the embassy.
Where would the tourist end up nowadays? In Gitmo? Or a South American prison?
Initially some American prison then deported to some random country based on what he appeared to be to the racist in command in charge of making this decision
Look, I’ve been to the states a good 7 or 8 times and I’m really very fond of the place and the people generally. That includes the, hands down, best summer of my life on a college visa.
I will not be going back there until shit calms down. I just can’t gamble on the notion of spending weeks in a cold, overly bright shithole cell on the whim of anyone on the way through just for a holiday when I can spin over to any country in Europe and just get a smile and a “Welcome” from the border security on my way in.
It just wouldn’t be a rational choice.
edit: I just want to add in that the EU pumps an enormous amount of money on the Erasmus scheme. If you’re not in the know the idea is to get kids in college in one country to do a year of the course in another country in Europe. The only real goal of this is to make people realise that they’re just like everyone else in Europe so we never have an internal war again and it is (along with a few other bits) the best money the EU spends IMO.
Who in their right mind would want to visit to US at this moment? It’s a clusterf*ck and even with a visa and a return ticket you could be detained.
Man, I was going to go to a wedding there that was super important to me but now I’m SO torn.
That’s a shame! I can understand you’re torn about it
None of the researchers in my lab go to conferences in the US anymore (there is remote participation since covid).
I won’t be bringing my non-USA citizen family to the USA for a holiday for at least the next 4 years. Even with a perfectly good visa, folks are getting detained. In the past I would spend more than $10k for roughly a month long visit on them (not including airfare to the USA). That money will now go to the EU or Japan.
Is this what Project 2025 wants to happen? I heard 42% of their goals have already been implemented. Do they think that isolationism and going back to unilateral, strong armed foreign policy will work? And I thought the Nazis were really stupid…oh wait…
Good, this gives me a little hope that the rest of the world is starting to understand how awful the US is, and that there just might be a few actual consequences for that awfulness.
Travelling to the USA right now sounds absolutely insane. Like who would even consider it?
You get to the airport. Then you have to unlock your phone and let a random moron sift through its contents.
It’s literally a recipe for disaster/arrest. The cops over there are fucking deranged. Sorry for any good ones. But you’re like the 1%. Police brutality in the USA is shocking to Europeans. I would be scared to be pulled over. Am I getting a ticket or a headshot/arrested for years?
Also I could imagine that if you refuse to unlock the phone, you’ll also be arrested. And by „I could imagine“ I mean 100% sure.
They could plant anything in there or claim they found terroristic messages. No thanks.
The USA are like Russia and Iran now.
And to think that, as a teen, I actually dreamed of moving there. Good lord thanks mom and dad for telling me it’s a fucking stupid idea. I would regret it now.
Note this means tourist areas should see prices drop on food in grocery stores because the supply was being created pre-decreased population. The decreased cash flow will hurt businesses and the suppliers will decrease production as to not have to sell at slim to no margins which will bring the prices back up soon enough (or the farmers/distributers will go out of business themselves).
It will give people in those areas a false narrative for the time being though because they will be happy about lower prices and less car traffic… But all the resteraunts will have less patrons, and less money going to servers, less jobs to be had eventually.
The thing that sucks is that the USA is awesome, it had great nature, great cities and good food / people.
The orange dipshit can’t take that away.
That said, only visit / give your money to blue states, that’s what I’m doing.
good food / people
The rich, you mean?
Only 9% decrease? That sounds pretty optimistic.
I’d guess it will be more like 50%. Guess we’ll see.
People book vacations like that well in advance. So there’s a time delay between the bookings and drop. Yesterday I read an article about Dutch travel agencies seeing far less bookings for US holidays. In january they saw a 20 percent drop, but they didn’t have February figures yet.
So by the end of this year, the tourism decrease will likely be much higher.
I was reading somewhere online someone’s observation at Dulles airport near DC, and they said the place was like a ghost town, and they asked a worker about it and they said it’s been like that for weeks.
There was also a recent high-profile crash around there and traffic is being re-routed while the cut-down FAA figures out the airspace.
I mean, it’s only been 2 months. 9% drop vs 5% gain is a 14% shift from expected. That’s impressive, and Trump administration is just getting started.
50% of U.S. tourists come from Canada and Mexico.
I really wanted to visit this year to for the first time, but instead I’m going to Canada and I’m really excited!
Glad you’re avoiding our shithole country. Wish I could say the same.
Do not under any circumstances come to America. We are experiencing a Nazi take over.
bring a dozen eggs and give one to each ICE agent you encounter along the way
bring a dozen eggs and give one to each ICE agent you encounter along the way
As long as you “give” them somewhat percussively. If ICE is gonna detain you no matter what, make it count!
Kill them while you’re at it.
Coming in May myself, anything I should know about how best to behave and handle interactions at the airport to get through safe and quick?
Encrypt your laptop, turn off face unlock and don’t let them unlock your devices.
Unless you go as far as having hidden partitions with a fake benign fascade this isnt good enough. How it goes is they plug your laptop into their forensics software, it reports encryption, they say unlock the encryption, you say no, they deny your entry and confiscate your hardware.
The only way I know of is to format a clean laptop and burner phone with nothing on it and put all your necessary work files in the cloud so you can get them back after getting to your hotel – and even then I’ve heard people denied because it was clear the machine was formatted too recently and they suspected people trying to do this trick and they dont like tricks.
so your burner laptops and phone have to look “lived in” but still benign. It’s much easier just to video chat whatever business youre trying to get done in the usa, and if you’re a tourist there are lots of better places to go anyway.
Wait they can just take your laptop and keep it? I’m not even in their country yet. Crazy
Wouldn’t matter if you were a citizen. Civil Forfeiture is a thing here. If the authorities think your property was used, or was intended to be used in a crime, they can seize it. Your property doesn’t have constitutional rights, so they can literally hold a trial against your stuff, with no legal representation and keep it permanently.
Get travel insurance too!
